Grigory Rodchenkov is making a Skype call from somewhere in America to his wife Veronica, back in Russia.

The 58-year-old scientist, a key figure for at least nine years in Russia's state-supported doping programme, is calling to say goodbye, perhaps forever.

For a long time to the outside world Rodchenkov was the respected head of Moscow's anti-doping lab and outwardly a leading advocate for clean sport. But he had been living a double life.

It has been claimed that Vladimir Putin 'was at the heart of the Russia drug scandal'

To Putin, Grigory Rodchenkov is a 'scandalous' traitor who enriched himself via corruption

First he had helped hundreds of Russian sportspeople to cheat their way to glory on performance-enhancing drugs, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2012 London Games and the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia, among other places.

Later when exposed — including by this newspaper, firstly in 2013 — he fled to the United States.

Now he is explaining to his wife that he is about to enter the US Federal Witness Protection Program. He is not entirely sure where he will live, or under what identity.

It appears Veronica found out only recently that her husband was about to become Russia's Most Wanted.

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The scene comes in footage filmed in summer 2016. Few people know now where Rodchenkov is. Bryan Fogel, the filmmaker who tells Rodchenkov's story in a new documentary, Icarus, certainly doesn't.

The film, which had a world premiere at the Sundance Festival in Utah on Friday, attended by The Mail on Sunday, also shows Fogel saying farewell to Rodchenkov, at Los Angeles airport, last summer.

If this all sounds like some Cold War thriller then the reality is even more bizarre, and chilling, Rodchenkov remaining visible only on the silver screen. Possibly it will stay that way. To some he is a brave whistleblower who eventually shared with the authorities his role in a massive sporting deception, as illegal as it was immoral.

Rodchenkov acted as an alleged 'doper-in-chief' to Russia's athletes at the London Olympics

WHAT IS ICARUS?

Four years ago filmmaker Bryan Fogel embarked on a documentary. Fogel's idea, as a clean amateur cyclist, was to examine what happened if he doped.

By an extraordinary twist, he was 'mentored' in illegal drugs by Grigory Rodchenkov.

After discovering his mentor's role in state-backed Russian doping, Fogel, pictured, helped Rodchenkov flee, in fear of his life.

Icarus details the entire saga.

To others, including Russian president Vladimir Putin, he is a 'scandalous' traitor who enriched himself via corruption, recklessly damaging his nation's sport as well as his country's reputation. The truth, as ever, lies in the shadows between.

Fogel's 110-minute film started out with the premise that he, as a recreational athlete, would experiment with doping products and record it.

There is certainly a goofy, amateurish feel to the first hour of Icarus, with Rodchenkov almost clownish at first, dishing out advice from afar.

Fogel is not clued up enough at this stage, in 2014, to be aware of Russia's doping system and is ignorant of Rodchenkov's role in it.

The revelations that follow are extraordinary. Even the way Fogel met Rodchenkov beggars belief. Fogel first approaches Don Catlin — a figure long seen as leader of the modern anti-doping movement — to help him dope.

Catlin appears to agree and then changes his mind, recommending an old friend, Rodchenkov, instead. Catlin is asked on camera why Rodchenkov would be helpful and says: 'I could answer that question but it doesn't make Grigory look good.'

The clear message is Catlin knew Rodchenkov was a doping specialist even while still in situ as head of Moscow's lab. The Mail on Sunday asked Catlin on Sunday why he hadn't personally helped Fogel to dope.

He said in an email: 'Lab directors are under signed oath not to aid or abet dopers. I was interested in the results of such a study. I did not want to incur the wrath of WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency].'

RUSSIA'S DEPUTY PM WAS AWARE OF DOPING...

How The Mail on Sunday revealed the extent of doping in Russian sport back in 2013

Vitaly Mutko, the deputy prime minister of Russia and former sports minister who denies any involvement in state-sponsored doping, talked openly about sophisticated illegal drug taking in Russia sport 12 years ago, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Dmitry Zapolskiy, the former head of a St Petersburg TV station who had Mutko — who has been cited in investigative reports as being involved in the scandal — as a guest on his show, recalls a mid-Noughties night when Mutko talked in detail about drugs.

Mutko, an MP at the time, held roles in football and the paralympic movement.

'I asked him what was going on in our sports,' Zapolskiy told the MoS. 'He replied: 'Nowadays there's no way to achieve any result in sport without doping'.

'Mutko told me about doping, some innovative techniques that can't be seen by the doping tests. Some very tricky schemes that according to him would be impossible to track … [he said] 'We are investing big money into [doping]. And no one will ever catch us'.'

Russian President Putin and the sports minister Vitaly Mutko are pictured together

Asked if he knew Rodchenkov was a doping facilitator when he sent Fogel to him, Catlin said: 'I suggested he speak with Grigory, which he did. I have been involved with Russia for many, many years. It is a long story.'

Rodchenkov reveals in the film that his own doping experience dates back to his days as a young marathon runner, saying he was taking performance-enhancing drugs administered with a needle by his own mother.

Rodchenkov says he later fell out with Sergei Portugalov, a veteran Soviet sports doctor named by WADA as a long-time senior doping organiser in Russia.

Rodchenkov says Portugalov obtained doping products from China but that source dried up. Rodchenkov found an alternative source, so became more powerful in the system.

Rodchenkov alleges it was this power struggle that resulted in his arrest by the Russian authorities in 2011 for drug dealing. It was at this stage, as the MoS first revealed in 2013, that Rodchenkov tried to take his own life.

In Icarus he describes how he drank a large amount of whisky, took a bath, and slashed his arms before stabbing himself deeply in the chest, grazing his heart. In the film he shows the scars. He says only a brilliant surgeon saved him. He spent months in a psychiatric unit.

FIFA WANTED THEIR INFLUENCE OUT OF FOOTBALL...

Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, made a private phone call to Russia's deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko in September and asked him, in effect, to step away from his roles in football administration.

Mutko has been named in a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as having an active role in decisions on doping and cover-ups.

This led the International Olympic Committee to ban Mutko from attending the Rio Games last summer and left FIFA with a headache of having Mutko holding several senior positions in the global game.

He is a member of the powerful FIFA Council, he led Russia's successful bid to host the 2018 World Cup and in September was re-elected as president of the Russian FA.

Sources say Infantino called Mutko a few days before the Russian FA presidential election and advised Mutko not to stand.

'There was a clear message that Mr Mutko's ongoing involvement at administrative level was a potential embarrassment to FIFA,' a source in Moscow says.

It is understood Mutko 'made sympathetic noises' to Infantino — and then ignored him.

Sources sayFIFA president Gianni Infantino asked Mutko to step away from football

Arguably the film's biggest bombshell — or rather the most significant backing up of long-suspected information — is Rodchenkov's testimony that Putin personally arranged his release from custody to go back to work and oversee a continuation of the doping programme.

'Putin requested me,' he tells Fogel, describing the move back to the head of the lab and Russia's appointed doper-in-chief as his 'redemption'.

Rodchenkov says he doped 30 Russian medal winners at Beijing 2008, and at least half of Russia's 72 medal winners at London 2012 before orchestrating Russia's dirty glory on home snow and ice at Sochi 2014.

Where all of this leaves the world of anti-doping — and Russia —remains to be seen. The film will certainly add an element of evidential weight to those arguing Russia is not fit to stage the 2018 World Cup and should be kicked out of the Olympics until they prove they have cleaned up their act.

Russia will argue they are innocent, betrayed and the victims of a western smear that seeks to hide doping by every other nation.

As for Rodchenkov, he's in the wind. For now.

NEW TALLY OF CHEATS EMERGES

Whistleblowing former lab chief Grigory Rodchenkov, who helped more than 1,000 Russian competitors cheat, claims more Olympic medals were won via his efforts than was thought.

He claims he doped at least half of Russia's 72 London 2012 medal winners, as well as 30 or more Russian medal winners from Beijing 2008.

London 2012 steeplechase gold winner Yuliya Zarapova has been banned for doping